KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kyle Milka, a senior at the Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center and Portage Northern High School, was involved in a Michigan State University University research project that recently won Best Demo Award at a national conference.

Kyle Milka

The award was given at the Sixth International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and System, held in Washington D.C. from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. The conference was sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Xiaoming Liu, a MSU assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, said that Milka made a "substantial contribution" to the project.

Also involved in the project was Shannon Houtrouw, KAMSC computer science teacher, who was worked with Liu's graduate assistant, doctoral student Joseph Roth, through a National Science Foundation program that pairs high school science teachers with university researchers.

During his time at MSU this past summer, Houtrouw began writing the code for a Demo System for the biometric typing behavior security research project that Liu and Roth created. Their research provides a way to continuously identify a computer user by their recorded typing behavior. At the end of his time at MSU, Houtrouw recommended that Liu hire Milka to pick up where Houtrouw left off.

Milka worked with Roth in finishing the demo system that was taken to the conference.

This isn't Milka's first accolade in computer science, said Houtrouw, who describes him as "among the brightest computer science students I have ever worked with."

He was KAMSC's 2013 Outstanding Student in AP Computer Science, and at the 2013 American Computer Science League International All-Star Contest, Milka was part of a KAMSC team that placed first in the United States and second overall.

Also this past summer, Milka won a scholarship to attend the National Summer Transportation Institute's two-week engineering camp at Michigan Tech University. Each year the students have a balsa wood bridge-building contest, which was won by Milka and three other KAMSC students, earning the quartet the rare opportunity of going to the top of the Mackinaw Bridge.